


Pathway of Dreams II, The

by HASA_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Other - Freeform, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-23 13:05:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3769595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HASA_Archivist/pseuds/HASA_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mortal child travels on the Olore Malle to Lorien, The Garden of Dreams, and has an experience there unlike many of us has ever known.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pathway of Dreams II, The

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

_“Night has brought to those who sleep only dreams they cannot keep.”  
-Paint the Sky with Stars, by Enya_

_“Our life is no dream, but it should and will perhaps become one.”  
-Novalis_

*******

The Pathway of Dreams where is naught as it seems  
leads from the light of the moon:  
from the celestial bower of the Selenite’s tower  
into the sleeping child’s room.  
The spidery stair of filigree hair  
through the darkened sky spins and twines  
finding its way where the night sylphs play  
and dance on its silver-white lines.

The child where he lies dreams of brilliant blue skies,  
of strong soaring birds on the wing,  
of green grass and tall trees whose boughs in the breeze  
whisper and blow and sing.  
The child does not know what awakened him so,  
for it seems, and he thinks he’s awake.  
Out the window he sees, undisturbed by the breeze  
the ladder the selenites make.

He sees not with fright but endless delight  
the thin but spidery web:  
and upward he climbs with a laugh like gold chimes  
out of his room and his bed.  
He does not tire as he climbs higher, higher,  
high above the firmament’s cloud  
or where wind doth blow. He looks down below  
and delighted exclaims aloud.

Twinkling lights in the town shone for miles around,  
though many were silent in sleep.  
He kept going up to the rim of Earth’s cup  
and the bottom of Heaven Deep, (1)  
until at last where Earth’s shadows pass,  
he came to the moon’s brilliant side  
and passed it by, going on to fly  
to the place where the Shadows abide. (2)

He began to be scared for in darkness he fared  
when he saw a bright glimmer afar;  
as nearer it came his heart rose the same,  
and his face shone in joy as a star.  
A garden of light he saw with delight  
amidst white moon-rocks cold.  
The trees were green with a light silver sheen  
and the flowers were shod with gold.

There children played and music was made,  
and laughter alight on the air  
made his young heart soar unlike ever before;  
he alighted from silver stair  
with bare feet on dew all a’sparkling new  
translucent orbs that hung  
with diaphanous sheen on grass bright and green.  
where they trembled, quivered, were flung. (3)

There were beautiful creatures with bright fair features-  
the sprites of wood and streams  
with flowers on hems of their garments, and gems;  
they danced the dance of dreams.  
And as they sang the woods around rang  
and the children giggled like brothers.  
The boy joined the fun and began to run  
and chatter and play with the others.

He played in the glade until he was bade  
to say farewell to his friends.  
Then it faded away to the breaking day  
and there his journey ends.  
He awoke in his bed and cried out in dread  
for his heart was rent in despair.  
It was all a dream and now it would seem  
there was no other place so fair.

But as his tears fell a fragrant smell  
he thought that he knew from afar  
wafted by on the air. He looked down where  
in his hand was a yellow nenuphar  
from the garden of dreams where is naught as seems,  
and where woodland dryads twirl,  
where children play and laugh so gay  
beyond the end of the world.

*******  
 **Author's notes:**

References in this poem are made to The Book of Lost Tales I, Roverandom, and “The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon” by J.R.R. Tolkien.

**Footnotes:**  
(1) See C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy  
(2) See George MacDonald’s short story, _The Shadows_  
(3) Rima 53 by Gustav Adolfo Bécquer:  
“Pero aquellas cuajadas de rocío  
cuyas gotas mirábamos temblar,  
y caer, como lágrimas del día…”

_Translation:_  
“But those covered in dew  
whose drops we watched quiver,  
and fall, like tears of the day…”  



End file.
